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TULARC COUNTY. 

By GEO. A. BARRY. 

ULARE COUNTY, even in the distractions following- '49, in the 
midst of a country noted for its gold, in the very path of the ar- 
gonauts who came to the divine California as to an El Dorado, was 
chosen by its first settlers for the promise of its soil. Today that fertility, 
then so clearly the herald of its true greatness, is coming forcibly to the 
attention of the world. It is not that Tulare County lacks the unmatched 

beauties of scenery and climate to be 
found everywhere within the bound- 
aries of the State, nor yet the deposits 
of gold that made California so long 
the synonym for mining rather than for 
farming. The highest mountains, the 
deepest caiions, the largest trees and 
the finest trout streams in the nation 
are in the Sierra Nevadas, the fa<^ades 
of whose Western peaks line through 
the geographical center of the county 
from north to south, and from the 
same mountains gold and magnesite 
are taken in large quantities, while 
rich deposits of lead, silver and copper 
are known to be there. 

It is the richness of the soil, however, 
that attracts the attention of the fruit- 
grower and of the old-fashioned farmer 
to Tulare County. The San Joaquin 
Valley is a part of the great central 
plateau of California, which is formed 
by four chains of mountains of which 
the Sierra Nevada are the eastern, and 
it is drained by the San Joaquin river 
and its tributaries. At the head of this 
valley and on its eastern limb, yet 
stretching over into the mountains, 
lies Tulare County. It is midway be- 
tween the two chief cities of San Fran- 
cisco and Los Angeles.. It is a terri- 
tory across which a railroad train 
would require six hours to travel, for 
it is as large as the State of Massachu- 
setts. Nearly two-thirds of it is moun- 
tainous, but the remaining third, lying 
almost under the shadow of those 
peaks, from which the snow never de- 
parts and bathed in a sunshine which 
is eternal, is a paradise as " fair as a 
Garden of the Lord," and that is a 
simile to be taken literally, for it is 
not the hand of man that has made 
this county a place of plenty and of 
beauty. 

It is one of the anomalies of hu- 
man nature that Tulare County is no 
more cultivated and no more populated 
than it is, just as it seems to be an 
anomaly that it should be perfect in 
natural resources, a place where man 
does not find the elements in league 
against him but combined to help him. 
It is as though nature had played the 
practical trick that one is recorded to 
have successfully tried when he went 
about the streets of a great city for 
a whole day carrying a hatful of gold- 
en eagles and offering them to who- 




PuMPiNG Watbr by Condensed Air. 
(Near Tulare.) 



Reprinted from Out West for December, 1902. 



2 TULARE COUNTY 

ever would buy at a dollar apiece. So rare a bargain will not be 
credited any more than it will be readily believed that one needs only tickle 
the ground with a stick in Tulare Countj' and drop in any seed one wishes, 
and this twice or thrice a year, to secure as bountiful a crop as ever came 
out of the most carefully fertilized and diligently husbanded acreage back 
east. 

To one who enters this rich country for the first time the impression is 
that here is great wealth waiting to be easily developed, for wherever it is 
possible to discover the vertical extent of the soil it is found to be of an 
almost incredible depth, as much as thirty feet and even more being not 
uncommon ; for here, as in all parts of the San Joaquin Valley, the arable 
land is made of a rich alluvial deposit, the accumulation of geologic ages 
of washings from the granite mountains. The surface of the country', 
until the foothills are reached, appears as level as a billiard table, though 
there is a dip to the west of about nine feet to the mile, and much of it 
looks like eastern pasture land on account of the frequency with which 
great spreading oaks are seen, with cattle and sheep grazing beneath them. 




In Tulare P.-^stures. 



Photo b Y Moor I 



To water this immense area, with its industries requiring such constant 
care, is a problem happily solved by the presence of six streams having 
their sources in the mountains and spreading in deltas so as to cover every 
acre of arable land in the county with the aid of the ditches of four irriga- 
tion districts, called the Alta, Tulare, Tule River and Poso. All of these 
are organized and operated under the State law, the annual assessments 
for maintenance being from 50 cents to $1 per acre., approximately. This 
pays the expense of the operation of flumes and provides a sinking 
fund for the payment of bonds. But these irrigation ditches are not the 
only sources of water supply. The waters of King's River, Sand Creek, 
Kaweah River, Tule River, Deer Creek and White River lie just beneath 
the surface of the ground, in apparently inexhaustible quantities, and wells 
of a depth of 100 feet invariably find a body of water which rises half 
way to the surface and usually refuses to be lowered by the most vigorous 
kind of pumping. Power for the operation of pumps is furnished by 
the Mt. Whitney Power Company, a corporation whose electric wires 
ramify the entire county, and which has reduced the cost of water nearly 




SUGGESTIONStFOR SUMMKRINgHinE/TuLARE 'COUNTY, • 

I » 



TULARE COUNTY 




Where Tulare County's Irrigating Water Comes From 
(Photo taken in July at an altitude of about 12,0ai feet.) 

fifty per cent belovr the figure which represents the cost under the steam 
engine pumping plant system formerly used. •• 

It is not only for the consideration of fruits, but for habitation as well, 
that the matter of climate is important. It is important everywhere, but 
especially so in California, where climate is thought to be everything. 
Climate everywhere in the State is good and nowhere is it bad, so there is 
no need of comparisons, but the result of thirty years' observation in 




Mutton and Wool Afoot. 



Photo by Moor 



CALIFORNIA 5 

Tulare County may be easilj' summed up. The climate there does not 
materially differ from the whole upper San Joaquin Valley. That it is 
tropical would be the natural supposition when it is known that oranges, 
lemons and figs are successfully grown, but it must not be supposed that 
thermal conditions producing such fruits are necessarily of a tropical 
nature. These citrus fruits are produced not only because of the thermal 
condition but also because of the soil and by the aid of artificial irrigation, yet 
of these three essentials the climate is the least tropical ; it is not even semi- 
tropical. During what are termed the winter months — December, Januarj^ 
and February — the mercury has never been known to go to 32 degrees or 
below and rema in there as long as three hours after sunrise even in the shade. 
During these months the temperature will fall at times to the freezing 
point and below, but this always takes place between sunset and sunrise. 
In the summer there is some of what is termed hot weather, but not such 



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Tulare County Peaches. 
(2% years from planting'.) 



Photo by Robinson & Weishar. 



hot weather as afflicts those east of the Rockj- mountains. The heat is 
always dry, so that there are never any prostrations such as occur in the 
eastern states. Men engage in hard manual labor with the temperature 
as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit. This, however, is an unusual heat. 
The average mean temperature for the summer months is about 75 degrees, 
and the average highest temperature about 95 degrees. There is almost 
an entire absence of humidity through the hot spells, so much so that it 
is not often that a trace of dew can be found on vegetation either at night 
or in the morning. This prevents the heat from becoming enervating, and 
there is always relief at night, for then comes a coolness. This never 
fails. In a properly ventilated building it is not possible to sleep through 
the night without covering, even when the daj^ has sent the mercury up to 
120 degrees. 

The scenery of Tulare County is famous the world over. Kern River 
canon and King's River caiion are two of the most picturesque localities 
known to the American traveler, and Mt. Whitney, 15,300 feet high, the 
highest mountain in the United States, excepting Alaska, is always an ob- 
ject of deep interest. To call the scenery of these gorges and canons mag- 
nificent and sublime is to use only the current adjectives of travelers. 



TULARE COUNTY 





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MaGjVesite Wokks at Portkkville. 



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From the summit of Whitney one ma^- look sheer down 11,000 feet to Ivone 
Pine, the distance being so great that the outlines of trees may not be 
seen with the naked eye, but with a glass objects maj' be distinguished. 
Perhaps the greatest interest for travelers in this locality lies in the Giant 
Forest, which is situated 57 miles due east of Visalia, the county seat. In 
this forest there are upwards of 4,000 trees of over ten feet diameter at the 




Rocky Poin i (iKANiTK iMakkv. (Near Exeter.) 



CALIFORNIA 7 

base and which tower more than 300 feet into the air. The General Sher- 
man in this forest is the largest tree in the world. At its base it measures 
100 feet in circumference and five feet above the ground it is 84 feet 3 
inches, a size which is maintained for 200 feet. Groups of six to a dozen 
trees 60 to 75 feet in circumference are frequently found. The tallest tree 
is 405 feet high, while one fallen monarch, 310 feet in length, reaches en- 
tirely across Crescent meadow. The altitude of the spot where the General 
Sherman stands is 7,100 feet, and the forest ranges from 6,500 to 7,400 feet 
in elevation. The government has built a fine road into the Giant Forest, 
and during the present year it was visited by about 1,500 tourists. Besides 
the " sequoia gigantea " there are superb specimens of sugar pine, silver 
fir, cedar, yellow pine and Douglass pine, all of which, taken together, 
constitute the most wonderful forest of great trees on this earth. In the 
streams around the base of Mt. Whitney, and in all the brooks of these 




The Blossom of Orange. 

mountain fastnesses, are found in great abundance the famous golden 
trout, a game fish said to exist nowhere else — of a brilliant golden color 
and of a flashing wariness that is the delight of sportsmen. 

The nitrates and potash of Tulare soil, aided by the vrarm, early spring 
and the summer nights not so cool as to check growth, together with a 
late fall, constitute the elements which produce the early maturity and 
phenomenal bearing of the deciduous fruit orchards of the county. The 
remarkable height which peach or prune trees may attain in a single season 
is illustrated by a picture which accompanies this article, and in the third 
year after planting, a good crop for market may be expected. The experi- 
mental era in fruit growing is passed in Tulare County. The fitness 
for particular fruits of the various localities has been amply demonstrated, 
and at the present time there is practically no chance for failure of profit 
to the intelligent and industrious fruit grower, while under propitious con- 
ditions incomes from average orchards fairly challenge the admiration of 
the stranger. A few illustrations of the fact from the crop of last year 
may not come amiss. 

Ninety acres of peaches sold green for canning and shipping, $8,928.51 ; 
.peaches dried, $619.31 ; total, $9,547.82 ; revenue per acre, $106.00. 

A grower sold the fruit on his ten acres of peaches for $907.50, on the 



TULARE COUNTY 




Rradv to Pick. (A Seedless Sultana Vineyard near Diuuba.) 

trees ; another received $390 for the peaches on four acres, without the ex- 
pense of gathering- and marketing. 

From a young 10-acre orchard green fruit to the amount of $324, and 
dried fruit $1,260.29 was sold ; a gross return of $158 per acre, and a net 
profit of nearly $100 per acre. 

The prune industry shows returns fully as satisfactory. In the territory 
tributary to Visalia, there are 2,800 acres of bearing prunes from which 
there were ship])ed of cured fruit 14,200,000 pounds, an average of two and 




A Fair Exhibit from Tulare County. 
(Over 100 varieties of grapes and almost as many of grain.) 



CALIFORNIA 




Aftkr Picking. (17 tons to the acre was the yield.) 

a half tons per acre. Sold at an average of $60 per ton this fruit brought 
the grower $150 per acre gross.. Deducting $15 per ton for picking and 
drying leaves $112.50 net income per acre. This is an average of the entire 
crop. Many individual orchards show a much larger profit. 

The head office of the Alta Irrigation District is at Dinuba, a locality 
particularly well adapted to the culture of the raisin or wine erape, but 
suitable also for apricots, nectarines, prunes, pears, and all varieties of de- 
ciduous fruits as well as for alfalfa, grain, and vegetables of all kinds. As 
an indication of the extent of the raisin industry of this locality, the out- 
put of a single packing house for the present year, speaks with striking 
force, as follows : Muscatel raisins, 1164 tons ; seedless Sultana raisins, 180 




A Car-Load of Tulare County Raisins. 



10 



TULARE COUNTY 




Packing Oranges at Lindsay. 

tons ; Thompson seedless raisins, 13 tons ; in sweat boxes readj- for pack- 
ing, 775 tons ; total, 2132 tons ; or, 213 lOton carloads of raisins. This 
concern has also packed this 3^ear upwards of sevent)' cars of dried fruit, 
consisting- of peaches, pears, apricots, plums and figs, and they have large 
crops of prunes yet to be delivered to the packing house. To enter one of 
these packing houses is to find a model of cleanliness and order, the help 
being, for the most part, young women, who look more like normal students 
than like factor3' girls. There are packing houses in all parts of the 
county, and they furnish attractive employment for young women during 
the packing season, which lasts over half the year, at a wage of from 
$1.50 to $2.00 per day. 

The writer had the privilege of looking upon a patch of twelve and a half 
acres of Sultana grape vines from which the owner had sold this year 
$3,195.80 worth of raisins, and was told that the yield was not at all' ex- 
ceptional, the revenue from this patch in nine 3'ears being $20,3 03.47. 
From a fourteen-acre vineyard of Sultanas a neighbor has received, in two 
years, $6,000. The average was 25 tons per year, and the price six cents 
per pound. But the Sultana has no monoply of big profits in this locality. 
A 44-acre tract of muscats yielded its owner last year $5,350 in raisins, and 
grapes sold to the winery. 

These illuslrations might be carried out indefinitely. Such profits are 




In a Lindsay Orchard. 



CALIFORNIA 



11 



not confined to one section of the county, nor to one industry. They are 
very general. There is no boom on. Prices are not inflated. Indeed as to 
some products — prunes, for instance — they are quite low. But Tulare 
County has come into its own. It has settled down into the business of 
fruitgrowing", while it is conscious of great resources in dairying and stock 
raising. Its possibilities are much diversified, and the particular adapt- 
abilit)' of its various locaHties has been determined beyond a peradven- 
ture. 

The Alta District contains about 130,000 acres, and virgin lands jnay be 
purchased in almost ever)' part of it at prices ranging from S50 to $100 per 
acre. Nor is there any scarcity of water, which comes from Kings River 
in a volume, during the irrigating season, of from 10,000 to 30,000 cubic feet 
per second, a quantity sufficient to irrigate twice the amount of land within 
the boundaries of the district. 

But it is in citrus fruits that the greatest distinction of Tulare County 
lies, though the industry is comparatively new. The crop of 1901 was 
about 1000 carloads, and the early ripening of the fruit is indicated by the 




Pears on the Drying Trays at Dindba. 

fact that the entire crop was harvested and shipped by December 20th. 
The citrus belt extends along the base of the foothills for a distance of 
about forty miles, and varies in width according to topographical and soil 
conditions. In this belt damaging frosts are said to be unknown, and 
owing to the influence of the warm, dry climate, the orchards are entirely 
free from scale, while no sign of smut has ever disfigured an orange grown 
in this belt. 

Exeter, Lindsay and Porterville are the leading centers of orange pro- 
duction, and at Lemon Cove there are extensive orchards of lemons. There 
were last year 5,455 acres of citrus fruit trees in the county, about 2,000 
acres in bearing, and 750 acres were planted this year. Orange lands are 
in strong demand, but the territory suitable for orange culture is so ex- 
tensive that the price of good lands has not up to the present time become 
excessive. One hundred dollars per acre buys the best of the lands with 
water rights, and trees may be expected to bear the fourth year after 
planting, if reasonable care has been taken in cultivation and irrigation. 
The fact that an orange grove five years old pays a large percentage of 
profit on a valuation of $1,000 per acre, indicates a vast increase of value in 



12 



TULARE COUNTY 




An Orange-Growek's Home at Porterville. 



Photo by Moore. 



the $.100-an-acre raw land during- the five years of growing. In the large 
and thrifty stand of trees, in the size and flavor of the fruit, and in their 
heavy bearing, Tulare County orange orchards certainly present a marked 
incentive to the enthusiasm which her people manifest concerning the 
future of her citrus industry. 

Stock raising was originally the principal industry of Tulare County. 
That gave way to general farming, and while fruit growing is now, since 
the adoption of irrigation, the leading occupation, a large share of atten- 




A POKTERVILI-E RESIDENCE STREET. 



I'lioto by Moot I 




Some Tulare County Homes. 



14 



TULARE COUNTY 



tion is g-iven to dairying-, which is very profitable. The soil is adapted^to 
the production of alfalfa and other nutritious grasses, and the climate is 
so mild that cows and calves in;iy run out twelve months in the year with- 
barns or sheds to protect them.from the weather. 

Tulare County is entirely without a public debt : all her public build- 
ings and improvements are fully paid for, and the rate of taxation is very 
low. Labor finds profitable employment at all seasons of the year, and in 
the summer season it requires about 6,000 men, women and children to 
harvest the crop around Visalia alone. 

That the population of Tulare County' is increasing- verj' rapidly is shown 
bj' the fact that the voting lists have about doubled since the last general 
election of four years ago, and the increase has been distributed quite evenly 
over the county. Visalia is rtie chief town and the county seat. It contains 
a population of 3,500. Its principal streets are paved with asphaltum and the 




A Tulare Home. 



Photo bv Doraii. 



graded sidewalks of the greater part of the municipality are wide and 
clean, and in the residence portion lined with manj' varieties of shade 
trees. The city is situated on a branch of the Southern Pacific, and on 
the main line of the Santa Fe. 

Tulare City is on the main line of the Southern Pacific in the southwest- 
ern part of the county. It is a thriving place of some 2,000 inhabitants. 
Its churches and schools are particularly fine, and a distinctive feature is a 
free public library housed in a handsome building of which the people are 
pardonably proud. That portion of the county known as " The Tulare 
Country," on account of its being directlv tributary to Tulare citj', is six 
townships long- and three townships wide, and is adapted to the culture of 
grain, g-rapes, deciduous fruits, alfalfa and other grasses. Lands are cheap 
and may be had as low as $5 per acre, while choice farming lands with 
water rig-hts sell for S50. 

Dinuba is a stirring town of very thrifty growth in the northeast, in the 
midst of orchards of deciduous fruits and vineyards of raisin grapes, from 
which startling- profits are made. 

Exeter and Lindsay are distinguished for orange production, and both 
are rapidly growing towns on the railroad between Visalia and Porterville. 
The latter, having a population of 1,800, is the principal center ofj the 



CALIFORNIA 



15 




High School Building at Tulare. 



Photo by Derail. 



citrus fruit industry of the countj', though Lindsay equals it in production 
and shipments. In the vicinity of these three places there are lands suit- 
able for citrus growth, at present uncultivated and for sale, in plenty. In 
characteristics they are alike, each being contiguous to the foothills and 
in the frostless belt. 





Graded School at Dinuba. 




Eaklv Okanges kkom Tulare County. 
(Pliolo taken at Lindsay, October 29, 190^. r Fruit just commencing to color.) 



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LOS ANGELES, CAL. 



LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 

III mil I II 



016 087 051 5^ 



